By Mulengera Reporters
For much of last year, Minister Haruna Kasolo worked hard to popularize himself as a good choice to lead the NRM front to reclaim the Bukoto Central MP Seat in Masaka which former Vice President Edward Ssekandi lost to DP’s Richard Ssebamala in 2021.
Kasolo’s mobilization had become so effective in such a short time to the extent that Ssebamala was beginning to become sleepless. This got to the nerve of Norbert Mao, Ssebamala’s party president in DP, who realized that his party risked becoming diminished even further in Parliament where it has only 9 legislators in a house of 529 representatives.
Mao sought and obtained audience with Gen Museveni at one of the state lodges upcountry and made his case.
He told Museveni that much as Ssebamala was a renegade MP working hard to contradict him from within the inside of DP, having Minister Kasolo antagonize him in Bukoto Central would render nugatory the political cooperation agreement between NRM and DP. “The understanding among my ordinary DPs is that the agreement requires that the two parties don’t fight each other and in a situation where my DP has such a small number of MPs, it’s prudent that a person like Ssebamala doesn’t get antagonized by someone who is at the level of Minister from your side,” Mao reportedly made his case.
Museveni appreciated the dilemma Mao was facing as his adversaries inside DP were beginning to use the Ssebamala predicament to point at dishonesty of the NRM group which is supposed to be DP’s MoU partner. Gen Museveni engaged his loyal cadre Haruna Kasolo, who had already invested plenty of effort in Bukoto Central, and cajoled him to quit and consider going back to Kyotera where he has had to start afresh.
Gen Museveni also viewed Kasolo’s movement from Kyotera to Bukoto Central in Masaka district as an act of surrender by the NRM which risked facing a vacuum in greater Rakai district which Kyagulanyi’s NUP would galvanize to enlarge its influence in that part of greater Masaka. So the Mao intervention came at a time the big man from Rwakitura was sleepless about that apparent vacuum.
Only months later, Kasolo is already moving mountains in Kyotera as it was manifested recently. When the AG Kiwanuka Kiryowa-led “Buganda for Museveni” caravan headed to Kyotera recently, fellow Ministers were elated to see that Haruna Kasolo’s crowd was the largest so far. Kasolo has proceeded to engage Kyotera LC5 Chairman Kisekulo back to the NRM fold. He was beginning to lean towards NRM as were many other hitherto disgruntled cadres of the NRM in the area.
KASOLO’S CEC PROSPECTS:
In a related development, Minister Haruna Kasolo’s bid to become the new ruling NRM Vice Chairman for Buganda region has continued to gather momentum with Mityana North MP Nsegumire Kibedi being among the latest to embrace him. Kibedi represents the home turf for incumbent Buganda CEC member Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi who is seeking re-election as Haruna Kasolo digs in.
Even among the top echelons of NRM, there is growing consensus that Kasolo deserves to take the CEC position which can be some form of empowerment for him as he spearheads mobilization to reclaim greater Masaka from NUP and back to NRM.
The feeling is that it’s prudent to console the ruling party cadres in greater Masaka with such a position because since inception of the ruling NRM party, greater Masaka, which always voted for NRM until 2021 when the Kyagulanyi umbrella wave came, the sub region has never been entrusted with any CEC level representation.
The other person who would have complicated things for Kasolo would have been Kayunga-based Moses Karangwa Kariisa who is organically rooted, down to earth and well-networked. Yet the biggest impediment the NRM Kayunga district chairman faces is that of ethnicity-being a Ugandan of Rwandese origin.
There is a feeling even amongst core NRM supporters in Buganda that someone with such ethnicity will make the NRM and Museveni’s re-election hard brand to sale among people living in Kabaka Mutebi’s Buganda Kingdom territory. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
